East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill tie 3-3 in soccer rematch
Playoff games don’t end with ties. That’s one of the few things that distinguished Friday’s soccer match between East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill from a post-season tournament game.
“It’s like I told our boys: Be grateful you have a rival like this to give you this sort of atmosphere, this sort of intensity to get us ready for the playoffs,” Chapel Hill head coach Jason Curtis said.
The two cross-town rivals battled to a 3-3 draw Friday night at East Chapel Hill’s Wildcat Stadium in a match marked by both a yellow card and a second-half penalty kick for each side. Since it was not a conference game and no standings were at stake, no overtime was played.
“That was a good game for them and a good game for us,” said East Chapel Hill head coach Austin Collins. “It’s good to play a game of this caliber against an opponent who’s really going to come after you hard. You’re not going to find much else to match that intensity.”
East Chapel Hill (12-2-3) and Chapel Hill (12-1-3) tied 1-1 in their first meeting this year, played Sept. 11 at Chapel Hill.
Turning point
Chapel Hill seemed to be in control after Sam Linker banged in a penalty kick to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead with 33:50 left in the match. The Tigers controled the run of play for next of the 30 minutes, but were caught off guard when East launched a long ball to the Chapel Hill six-yard box, where a defender’s shove led to a penalty kick for East Chapel Hill.
Connor Albrecht nailed the shot low and left to tie the game at 3 goals apiece with just 2:47 left to play.
By the numbers
3: the number of times Chapel Hill took a one-goal lead in the close contest.
2: goals each for Linker and Albrecht in Friday’s game.
1: goal for Chapel Hill’s Blake Johnson (in the game’s 21st minute).
1: own goal tallied in East Chapel Hill’s favor after a ball hit by Max Feldman deflected off a Chapel Hill defender’s head.
1: assist each for Feldman and Chapel Hill’s Ryan Shaifei.
0: ties between the rivals over the previous five years.
Three more who mattered
Arthur Mouw, Chapel Hill: In the 67th minute, East sent a long pass from outside the corner of the penalty area to the end line. The ball sailed past Chapel Hill goalkeeper Lu Lue toward the feet of two Wildcats waiting at the goal mouth, but Mouw cleared the ball off line and back out of the area.
Nick Hebert, Chapel Hill: Hebert kept offensive pressure on the Wildcats much of the second with several long runs into East’s defensive third.
Lee Folger, East Chapel Hill: East’s goalkeeper, Folger only faced four hard shots on-goal, and that was partially due to the way he repeatedly came off line to smother Chapel Hill offensive chances at the edge of the penalty area before the Tigers could take a shot.
They said it
“They really brought it to us. We had to come back three times. They made us work for it,” Collins said.
“It may sound cheesy, especially after a tie, but a game like this, with this sort of intensity and playoff feel, is only going to make us better,” Curtis said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 10:12 PM with the headline "East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill tie 3-3 in soccer rematch."